AWAY IS A PLACE - FOCUS Fashion School in Ayigya





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FOCUS School of Fashion
neighbours, activists and artists for a sustainable micro project in Ayigya
12/01/2012

The FOCUS School of Fashion is a community based project intended to provide employable skills for the women and girls in Ayigya Zongo.

The idea for a sewing school started within the 2011 community art project AWAY IS A PLACE. The women in Aygiya, who the artists worked with, indicated youth unemployment to be a major challenge facing their community. Together with the women the Ghanaian artist Ralitsa Diana Debrah initiated the FOCUS School of Fashion. Meanwhile, funds were raised by artist colleagues and friends in Hamburg, Germany.

The FOCUS Fashion School has been well supported by the inhabitants of Ayigya. At six sewing machines women and girls will learn how to design and produce fashionable clothes and sell them in shops and the nearby market. A studio and later an own building are planned.

Initiators in Ayigya:
Abiba Bukari, Adiza Bukari, Adisa Issah, Fatih Issah, Hawa Yusif and Mariatu Yusif.

Supporters and members of staff at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST):
the coordinating artist Ralitsa Diana Debrah
as well as
Reverend Martin Adi-Dako, Prof. (em.) Gilbert Amegatcher, Mawuli Amedofu,
the KNUST Textiles Session and further engaged persons.


First steps were taken by introducing the FOCUS School of Fashion project to the Chief and the Board of the Elders in Ayigya. Both the Arab school and the state school were asked to give a classroom for a temporary studio space. To build a permanent space for the fashion school, the Assembly Man was asked for land, and further fund raising will be mobilized by the Ghanaian partners and supporters.